Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1887-04-09

People complain of dull times in
Monongalia. True, there are some
buildings going up in town and in
the country, as is always the case in
the spring of the year; but in the
absence of active railroad building
there is an anxiety for something
more active in a business way.
The New Orleans Picayune, how
ever, gives some good advice about
booming" town and county,
which is SO applicable to Morgan.
town and vicinity that we transfer
it to our columns.
"No people are so helpless as
those who will not help themselves.
There are magnificent forests OF
timber, while the soil is capable of
producing everything the people can
need. They have an opportunity to
make themselves Independent if
they will use the means. They can
raise everything required to sustain
man and beast. As
for booms they must be made. They
never come to those who idly wait
for them. Organize immigration
societies and farmers clubs, as other
enterprislng people in the State are
doing. Stir things up yourself and
you will attract the attention of
others. A supine and apparently
helpless attitude, instead of exciting
sympathy, has a contrary effect.
People seeking opportunity for the
investment of capital or places to
live will always avoid dead com
Run9ty. 1t will not do to
sit still and lament dull times. The
only hope is in the manifestation of
a proper energy. Get up and go to
work on meao line if the old routine
fails. This is the age of hard work
and small pay. Then work the
harder. Make your own BOOM"
The Morgantown Post, like THE
HERALD, has tried hard to awaken
the people to the necessity of adopt
ing a neao line where n one.man.
benefit policy has failed time and
again. Confidence lost by every
repeated failure can never be re.
stored on the old line. Men of money,
brains and enterprise, reason thus:
We have watched the course OF
things for twenty years. There has
been no change or improvement for
the better. Why pursue the beaten
track any longer? Why not strike
out on q neao line? Halfef the pro-
posed enterprises in Martinsburg
have been dickered" to death be.
fore they were started, by rule-or-
ruin policy that must make or break,
and it broke every time. The
other half have been bled to death
by Objectionable management,-loss
Of public confidence and want OF
trust. The people go reluctantly
into public enterprises in which they
have not the most implicit trust. 1t
has come to this, that where men
now put money into anything in this
town, they invariably say" well,
III subscribe so much; 1 might as
we'll give it to you, for I'll never see
it anymore or words to that effect,
so that failure is forestalled. Will
our progressive men think for FIVE
minutes, whether this is not so; and
then think five minutes more why it
is so?
No enterprise, public or private,
can succeed unless managed and
controlled by the good judgment and
sound sense of the men acho pat their
money into 1t.
The difference between giving
money and inuesting money is the
difference between success and fail
IRE.
Now, we'll ask fairly and sincerely
an honest question: Isn't it a no.
-torious fact that the men who had
the least to lose and the most to gain,
run every public enterprise IN this
town; that some of the very officers
had no paid up stock, and if they had
any, it was for Tor expected to be for)
real or imaginary services.
Further, any public enterprise,
managed by Board of Directors,
some of whom have no cash interest
in it, on the contrary have personal
ends OF schemes Of friends to push, is
a FAILURE, no matter how much
money backs it up; unless a majority
voice of the bona fde stockholders of
a concern, direct and order and con.
troll its financial and business man.
agement, the chances are in favor of
failure; want of public confidence, OF
a death ride on the back of indivld.
nal greed or scheme.
Some may say: This is all the